


Change of Pace

by needchocolatenow



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 14:20:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7271722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/needchocolatenow/pseuds/needchocolatenow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be an easy mission: a Galra base that was, for all intents and purposes, abandoned on a primitive planet. Get in, download the base's info logs, get out. Simple.</p><p>Of course, when Lance realized he was going to be put together with Keith on this mission, simple went out the window.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Change of Pace

**Author's Note:**

> I have no beta reader. Sorry for any and all mistakes.

It was supposed to be an easy mission: a Galra base that was, for all intents and purposes, abandoned on a primitive planet. Get in, download the base's info logs, get out. Simple.

Of course, when Lance realized he was going to be put together with Keith on this mission, simple went out the window.

"Can't I go with Hunk? Or Pidge? Or Shiro? Or you? I'll even take Mustache over here. Or the rats."

"They are not rats," Allura huffed and shoved him through the hangar door, leaving him and Keith standing alone, looking awkwardly at each other.

"Fine!" Lance threw his hands up in the air. "I'm driving the pod. You can sit in the passenger seat."

Keith looked at Lance like he was being dumber than usual.

==

They ended up taking their lions down onto the planet—P121APUS; whomever named the planet should be shot because Lance couldn't remember that for the life of him. They had raced down despite Coran screaming in their ears about not attracting attention, though according to their scanners, there was nothing around. The space around P121APUS was deserted.

Speaking of which, the planet itself seemed to be deserted. No wonder Galra had abandoned the base that had been here; P121APUS was a planet with a surface that was composed of only 12% water, 48% desert, 25% rock, 10% flora, and 3.2% fauna. The remaining 1.8% was a miscellaneous combination of things that Lance did not care to learn about. Neither did he particularly care about Coran's lecture about how the planet was still able to sustain life on its surface despite terrible windstorms.

"I win!" Lance cheered when he touched down onto the sandy dune next to a desert oasis. Not far ahead, there was a small congregation of what looked to be buildings next to a blue-green colored forest. Odd, but, hey; alien planet.

"You did not win," Keith said, definitely tumbling out of his lion last. He even looked worse for wear. That was how soundly Lance beat him. "I was waiting for your slow butt to get a move on. How long did it take you to enter the atmosphere anyway?"

There may have been a slight mishap upon entry. Lance blamed it on the windstorms that he was not forewarned about. It was Keith's fault; he was too busy winning.

"Don't be a sore loser," Lance replied loftily. "It's unbecoming of you."

"You're full of it," Keith growled.

They made their way towards the buildings, which happened to be built right next to the abandoned Galra base. It made sense, in some sort of weird conquering way; next to the indigenous population, they could get food and water, get local news, and watch over their conquered subjects conveniently. What didn't really make sense was why they left. Maybe because the planet was so dull and backwater that it wasn't really worth sparing the personnel to watch over. Lance could totally see that happening here.

The two of them walked past the village gate in relative silence; Keith was being Keith and Lance was still feeling entirely too smug about beating Keith in the race down to the planet.

"Uh, Lance?"

"You should probably address me as Master, seeing how I beat you and all earlier," Lance replied. He was going to beat Keith into the Galra base, beat Keith to the information, and also, he was going to beat Keith at getting off this planet too.

"Lance!"

"It's my name, don't break it."

"Idiot!"

"Hey, I resent that!"

Keith grabbed his arm and gestured around. He was looking rather pink in the face and for some reason or another, Lance thought it was a good look on him. Brought color to his otherwise pale face.

That rough ride through the atmosphere rattled Lance's brain a little too hard.

"What do these buildings look like to you?"

Lance looked around. Primitive wasn't even the word; prehistoric was probably closer. Most huts were grey and looked carved out of stone while some were pale and obviously made of different materials. There was an odd pink one on the fringes and several darker ones erected near the middle of the village. They were all tall, with a domed roof, and reminded Lance vaguely of mushrooms.

"Uh, rocky?" Lance did his best to reply to Keith's question and not focus on the way Keith's hand still lingered on his elbow. The heat of it was nice, in a slightly alarming way.

Keith did not look satisfied by the answer.

"I have a bad feeling about this," Keith said, letting go of Lance. "I can't contact Coran or Pidge. It's like something is jamming our signal."

"Proceed with caution, got it," Lance sighed. He withdrew his bayard, just as Keith did the same and they continued their trawl through the village. Oddly enough, the village seemed to be abandoned, despite a roaring bonfire going in front of a particularly large mushroom building.

==

"That was easy," Lance commented as Keith stored away the data drive. He was unable to beat Keith to the data like he had planned, but he still had a chance at winning the race off planet. Two out of three wasn't that bad.

"Did you want this to be hard?" Keith shot him a glare. "Don't jinx it!"

Lance laughed and got a head start on winning when the world lurched and tilted sideways. After crashing into the floor in an ungainly heap, he opened his eyes to see Keith looking down at him, unimpressed and with a bit of a furrow in his brow. Keith looked good, but he would have looked even better if he smiled.

"I think I hit my head," Lance blurted.

"No, you hit your elbow. I watched you go down," Keith said, exasperation lacing his usually calm and cool tones. Wait, when did Lance start thinking of Keith as calm and cool? "There wasn't anything for you to trip on. Except for your ego, maybe." He extended a hand to Lance.

Lance made a face and tried to reach for Keith's hand with the intention of pulling him down to the floor when vertigo struck Lance again, forcing him to close his eyes to reorient himself.

"Hey, you okay?" Keith sounded genuinely concerned.

"Seeing stars," Lance replied, blinking his eyes in an effort to stop seeing odd flashes behind his eyelids. "Why am I seeing stars? I've been cooped up inside for too long, oh god, I have space fever."

Keith wordlessly pulled him up to his feet. For a guy that was smaller and more compact than Lance, he was strong. There was hardly a word of complaint out of him as he dragged Lance's uncooperative body along and all Lance could think was: when did Keith get so strong and gosh, his arms felt very nice.

"There is something very wrong," Lance gritted through his teeth. He was feeling warm—uncomfortably so. He wanted to get out of his battle suit, but what remained of his brain told him no, it was probably not a good idea to, being on an alien planet and all.

"I noticed," Keith muttered and on closer inspection, he was looking rather worn out too. At this proximity, Lance realized that Keith was also feeling overly warm, if the pink in his cheeks were anything to go by. Keith was also breathing harder than he should have and it wasn't just from lugging Lance around. "Let's get back to the lions as quick as—"

They were just at the entrance of the abandoned Galra base when Keith faltered; his balance shifted and they both went crashing to the dusty floor.

"We're going to die," Lance moaned. Keith had toppled onto him when they fell and as distressing as the whole situation was, it felt...kind of nice. Having Keith on top of him.

Something was very wrong and Lance's brain was definitely screwed up because of it. He tried to shake his head to clear himself of all unwanted thoughts, but all that did was bring him closer to Keith.

"Dude," he rasped. "I think we've been poisoned by the atmosphere. I thought Coran said it was safe for us!"

Keith glowered at him, but other than that, didn't move a muscle. He didn't even attempt to and neither did he say anything. If he was feeling anything like Lance was, he was probably boiling inside the battle suit.

"Keith—Keith, move. It's way too hot here and you're crowding my space," Lance said. He attempted to push Keith off, but when his hand met Keith's side, the universe's strangest sound echoed in his ears.

Lance stared. Keith turned redder than a tomato.

"That wasn't—" Keith protested weakly and Lance did it again, this time, running his fingers along the non-armored area of the suit that covered Keith's ribs. Keith's whole body shuddered and he made the noise again. It was a noise that Lance found that he really, really liked.

Lance's thoughts stuttered to a halt.

"No!" he screeched and with herculean efforts, pulled himself into sitting position and started stripping out of his battle suit, piece by piece. Sweat beaded along his hairline, dripping down his neck and pooling onto the dip of his back; he felt marginally better now that he was out of his suit, but not by much. He was down to his boxer briefs before he stopped, realizing that Keith was watching him with a dazed expression.

"Keith?" Lance leaned over, wanting to make sure that Keith wasn't suddenly going to give out on him when Keith grabbed him behind the neck and with a surprising amount of strength, pulled him down.

Their mouths met in a horrible clash of force, all teeth and pain and inexperience. Lance shrieked, but with Keith's mouth covering his, it came out more like a moan. Which was definitely not what he was aiming for.

"Keith, Keith," he called as Keith sucked and licked at his mouth. "No, this is—" Kiss. Suck. "—this is definitely some weird alien juju—" Lick. "We need to get out of here!" It was so hard to think in this heat! Not to mention, it took all his energy to not focus on the way Keith's mouth was sucking on him, the way his tongue licked a cool strip across the juncture between his neck and shoulder. Good lord, Keith was a sexy jerk—

Lance did not need to think about jerks or any kind of jerking.

"Keith, come on," he said and Keith groaned. Keith scrunched his eyes closed and when he opened them, he looked less like a horndog and more like himself again.

"I'm going to kill Coran," Keith gritted through his teeth.

==

They had barely made it back to the abandoned village's outskirts when Lance's legs buckled under him. Keith, who had previously been leaning on him, also fell.

"We're never going to make it back!" Lance wailed. He was overheated, dizzy, and he had a painful erection that wouldn't go away no matter how he tried to think cold thoughts. He was certain Keith was in the same boat as him. Erections were kind of hard to miss, especially in those skin-tight battle suits.

"Kiss me," Keith said.

"We're doomed!" Lance cried.

There was some strange noise like teeth grinding. Actually, it was exactly the sound of teeth grinding; Keith was looking red-faced and his brows were drawn together so tightly, it was practically a unibrow. Despite all that, Lance still thought Keith was entirely too good looking and it was not his fault for thinking that; his dick was practically crying from neglect at this point. Little Lance was going to take anything and run with it.

"When we," Keith paused and Lance did not miss the way he looked at Lance's mouth nor did he miss the way Keith licked his lips, "did...that earlier, my mind got less clouded. We managed to make our way here when we couldn't even move. Hurry up and kiss me!"

Desperation and panic was laced into Keith's voice, but Lance couldn't have stopped himself if he tried; he surged forward until he was practically on top of Keith and their mouths met in a clash of lips and tongues. It was messy and full of saliva and probably really gross, but it all went straight to his dick. He wanted to come; he _needed_ to.

Lance groaned and scratched at the front of Keith's battle suit where it was the flexible, body fitted thermal wear. Keith made a noise, high and needy and Lance thought that Keith was wearing entirely too much for this situation. He should probably be stripped down to his underwear like Lance was.

It wasn't difficult divesting Keith of his armor; in fact, Keith was more than amenable to helping with the task and when he was finally out of it, Lance got an eyeful of Keith's erection through his red colored briefs.

Thinking was the farthest away from his mind; Lance acted only on instinct and pulled Keith to him, angling his hips so their groins met. Keith choked audibly.

"Lance—" Keith called, but all Lance was focused on was getting off. The feel of Keith sliding against him was so good, too good. He wasn't going to last long, especially if Keith continued making those little gasping noises whenever they moved. "Lance, oh god—"

Their mouthes met again in a brutal kiss, all tongue and heat and that was it—Lance was coming, pushed over the edge, shapes in black clouding his vision and sapping whatever energy he had left. He slumped against Keith, the only thing really keeping him upright at the moment, and felt the full bodied shudder that went through Keith when he came. Keith flopped down onto the ground, boneless, taking Lance with him as he went.

Laying there, on the outskirts of the village, Lance struggled to get his hormones back under control. Keith had his arms arranged loosely over him and if the hardness against his thigh was any indication, coming did not ease their situations in the least. Lance looked around as much as he could without moving his head, wondering if there was any way that he could get them back to their respective lions quicker when his eyes focused on the mushroom huts.

It hit him.

"Oh my god, they are phalluses," Lance blanched. "Why are they phalluses? Who even builds phalluses for homes? What kind of planet did we come to, to have phalluses for houses?"

Keith muttered something that sounded like "stop saying phalluses."

Lance chanced shaking Keith's shoulder, which earned him a baleful glare. Figures someone like Keith would bask in the afterglow.

"We have to go, we're on a crazy phallic planet and it's making us horny as hell. I bet this was why the Galras left!"

"Agreed," Keith said, but didn't move. At least, not in the way Lance was anticipating.

"You just came!"

"You're hard too," Keith replied and there was an unfamiliar gleam in his eyes. He pushed Lance over and shimmied down his body and before Lance could even protest, Keith had freed Lance's erection from his boxer briefs.

Keith looked intently fascinated and Lance couldn't help the shiver than ran down his spine. When Keith took Lance's dick into his mouth, it was all Lance could do to not buck into the tight heat. It was Lance's first blow job and it was...indescribable. The four directions ceased to exist, time became a foreign concept, and any urgency that he previously had at leaving the planet had flown out of his brain; all he could focus on was the way Keith's mouth wrapped around his cock. He didn't know if it was because it was Keith or because that he was souped up on some weird alien poison aphrodisiac, but he was approaching the fastest orgasm he was ever going to have.

He tried to warn Keith, even to say his name, but when he placed his hand onto Keith's head in an effort to tell him, all Lance saw was the way Keith looked up at him. That was it. Lance was gone, coming in rivulets down Keith's throat.

==

Naked and shuddering, clutching each other and their bayards, they made it back to their lions. They had attempted to enter the oasis to cool off and try to wash off their bodily fluids, but that had led to more distractions. Lance was sure his neck and chest was covered in hickies and Keith had a very nice set of hand prints along his hips.

The first thing Lance did when he collapsed onto the pilot seat was turning on the air filters, followed immediately by blasting the cool air. Whatever it was that was affecting him would pass shortly and he sighed in relief. His head was still swimming, his dick just couldn't seem to get the message it's already come three times, and his skin continued to feel sickeningly hot. But now he knew he was safe. Keith was safe.

"This info had better be worth it," Lance muttered and nearly jumped when he heard an answering groan. The local channel for communications with Keith still worked and was opened.

"We are never coming back here," Keith said, sounding very breathless and if Lance dared think it, debauched.

Lance nodded, forgetting for a second that visuals were down and the only thing that worked was voice. "For once, I agree."

==

Only when they had fully exited the planet's atmosphere did all communications come back on. Pidge was the first thing Lance heard, frantic and worried. Thank god he shut off visuals because he did not need Pidge to see the state he was in currently. He didn't want anyone to see the state he was in.

"Are you guys okay?" Pidge asked. "Why are visuals off? Are you hurt?"

"Sore," was the first thing off the top of Lance's head that wasn't completely indecent. "We got the data."

There was silence on Keith's end, then as if he was very far away: "It was in my suit." The suit that they had left behind in that village full of phalluses went unsaid.

"Yup," Lance sighed. "I took it off you. I think you were...too distracted to notice."

Another beat of silence emanated from Keith. "Thank you."

Screaming echoed over the Castle's line. "Who are you and what have you done to Keith and Lance?!" Hunk screamed over Pidge, who was faintly cutting in and out amongst some mumbo jumbo about parasitic aliens. "Turn on visuals so we know you're not imposters!"

"If they were imposters, they couldn't get inside the lions," Pidge said reasonably. "But why are your visuals not on? It sounds like you guys ran into a lot of trouble. Do we need to ready the healing pods?"

Probably. Most likely. They should definitely go into the healing pods, even if it was just to detox. All Lance wanted was a cold bath though; he didn't think his legs could support him for a shower just yet.

Coran interrupted Pidge and Hunk's worrying on account of being louder than the other two. "I did warn you that there were toxic particles in their atmosphere that worked as a neural steroid! It'd cause the Princess and I to go into a frothing rage if we were exposed to it! It'd probably would be safe for you earthlings to breathe for a short amount of time, but after that, who knows what would happen!"

Lance stared at the ceiling. He could feel his lion laughing at him.

"I don't know whether if I should be embarrassed or traumatized," he said.

"Both," Keith grunted and at the sound of his voice, Lance's traitorous, mostly flaccid cock gave an interested twitch.

Oh yeah, definitely both.

==

No one was at the docking bay to meet them, thank god. "Better safe than sorry," Allura had said, shutting everyone into the control chamber. Lance was a hundred percent sure that they were watching through the surveillance system, however. It was marginally less embarrassing, but only just.

Everything bibbed and bobbed when he stepped off from his lion. Either gravity on the Castle wasn't working correctly or his legs were still doing their best to imitate freshly made jello. A brief glance in Keith's direction proved he wasn't the only one feeling worse for wear.

A noise like a banshee shrieking rang out from the speakers.

"Ow, Hunk," Pidge complained.

There was a short silence that was followed by: "Why are you out of your battle suits?" And of course, that was Shiro, asking the one question that Lance did not want to answer. On the trip back, he had mentally prepared an outrageous tale of swashbuckling adventure explaining the nudity and the apparent disarray they were in, but it all died on his tongue. He had nothing to say.

"Ruined," Keith responded, which was technically true on his part. Lance could already imagine the skeptical eyebrow raise that Shiro was no doubt levying at them currently.

An audible sigh echoed through the docking bay.

"Get to the decontamination chambers, and then to the healing pods; they should cleanse any toxins left within your bodies," Allura instructed.

"Wait! The data!"

Lance turned the data drive over in his hand, feeling how incredibly grimey and sticky it was, and then looked over at Keith. "Uh, this should probably be cleaned too," he said and watched in fascination as Keith blushed and turned away.

Jeez, he really needed that healing pod. He was starting to think ridiculous thoughts like walking right over and hugging Keith.

==

The aftermath of P121APUS was awkward to say the least.

Lance couldn't meet Keith's eyes and Keith couldn't seem to be in the same room as him without turning into a blushing red mess. Neither of them could talk to each other and it made meals tense and uncomfortable. Needless to say, mind melding and forming Voltron was an impossibility.

There was exactly one skirmish in which they discovered that problem and even though they've won the day—all thanks to Lance's ingenuity—Shiro was furious.

"I don't know what happened between the two of you, but you are part of a team," Shiro said. His posture was rigid and he had his arms crossed over his chest and behind him, Pidge and Hunk hovered nervously like a pair of birds. "I expected better. From both of you."

The words stung. Lance turned his head away from Shiro's direction and unfortunately, his unconsciousness decided that he was supposed to look at Keith instead.

"Sorry," Keith muttered, but it was aimed towards Shiro and not Lance.

Lance didn't know whether to punch him or to continue steadfastly ignoring him. Jerk.

Shiro sighed and the rigidity left his shoulders. "I'm not clear on what exactly it was that the two of you went through on P121APUS, but Allura has informed me that the toxins from their atmosphere can cause ultra-violence. If you need to talk about it, if you need anything, I'm here for you both."

"It wasn't really ultra-violence—" Lance started, but Keith elbowed him in the gut. Hard.

"We'll work it out," Keith said and bodily hauled Lance with him into the hall. He had a hard look in his eyes, the one he usually got when he had an opponent to defeat.

"Oh my god, he's going to kill me!" Lance reached for Hunk, but his treasonous best friend only waved in farewell.

"You'll come back a new man," said Hunk. "A better one."

"I'm haunting you when I die!"

The mechanical sliding door shut behind them.

It wasn't obvious at first where Keith was heading to; Lance thought they'd be going to the training deck because that was where Keith spent the majority of his free time. Of all the places he could have been dragged to, however, Lance did not expect to be brought to Keith's room.

The layout was exactly the same as Lance's, but whereas Lance's room was a mess, Keith kept his room clean and spotless. Even the bed was made.

"You can't kill me, you can't hide the evidence," Lance said. "I'll make sure to bleed all over your furniture."

Keith gave him a look. "I'd just eject you into space."

Lance considered it. "You're an evil genius in the making."

"Sometimes, I have no idea what goes on through your head," Keith said with a sigh. "I can't decide if you're an airhead or just an idiot."

"I'm intelligent," Lance groused. "So, did you just drag me here to make fun of me?"

Keith sighed again. "You know why."

Lance did know why.

But this was beyond the team, beyond Voltron. It was personal. He was shaken to his core with new revelations and he was sure Keith was too. It didn't take a mind meld to figure that out.

They sat in stony silence for a while, with Keith on the bed and Lance on the floor, staring at invisible specks of dust. Meal times were exactly like this. Lance chanced a glance up at Keith, hoping that maybe something could change here, in private. Yet, at the brief look at Keith, he remembered the feeling of strong limbs wrapped around him, the softness of Keith's mouth on his own, and the slack-jawed euphoric expression when Keith was coming. For the past week, those memories were what caused Lance to wake up every morning with a raging hard on.

"Hey," Lance ventured because he couldn't stand the silence anymore. "I don't blame you. We were just...really crazy. We weren't in control. There was no way we could have been, with the crazy phallus particles in the air. So, uh, I don't blame you at all."

"I don't blame you either," Keith replied and oddly enough, he smiled. It made Lance's heart skip a beat and the uncomfortable revelation that Lance had been gripping with all week reared its head: he wasn't as straight as he previously thought and of all the guys for his dick to focus on, it was Keith. Keith, who was possibly the greatest pilot that Lance had ever seen. Keith, the most infuriating person that Lance had ever known. Who was also stupidly handsome and really strong and actually a lot of fun to goad into competition.

Damn, he really knew how to choose them.

"What can we do to get past this?" Keith asked.

"Can I kiss you?" Lance blurted.

Keith stared at him, his eyes flinty and suspicious. He didn't say anything as he moved closer to Lance and for a moment, Lance thought Keith was going to hit him.

Instead, Keith crushed their mouths together in a clumsy kiss; it was painful and unsophisticated and Lance laughed, unable to help himself. So there was something in this world that the almighty Keith couldn't do well.

Keith pulled away, as if burned, but Lance grabbed him before he could retreat.

"You're a horrible kisser," Lance said, turning Keith's head to face him so he could show him how to kiss properly.

Pressing his lips to Keith's as tenderly as he could, Lance tried to convey without words the fledgling feelings he discovered. He moved slowly, kissed and sucked deliberately with a soft, careful touch and felt the answer in a full bodied shiver that passed through Keith. Just as he thought, he liked kissing Keith. And, he noticed with a touch of glee, Keith liked kissing him too.

When they separated, Keith was pink in the cheeks and glassy eyed, a dazed expression on his normally serious face. Lance felt more than a bit proud to be the one to put Keith in a state like that.

"What-what does this mean?" Keith asked, breathless. "We're—we're okay?"

Lance leaned forward and pressed a trail of kisses along the edge of Keith's mouth, moving to his jaw and then his neck. "I guess this means we're eloping and then you're going to have all my babies."

Keith shoved at his shoulder. "We are not eloping," he said.

"Whoa. So is that a yes to the have all my babies?"

Keith got a distinctive pinched look to his face and this time, shoved Lance harder in the shoulder. That actually hurt.

"You like girls," he said.

Lance threw his arms up. After a week of contemplation, this was what Keith was hung up on? Bright, genius, smart Keith thought he was exclusively into females when there was evidence—very clear evidence—to the contrary? Lance wasn't sure who was the bigger idiot in the room. "Does it look like I like girls right now?!"

Keith did not look convinced.

"I'm not saying I don't like girls because let me tell you, I still do. But," Lance made sure to emphasize the word so it penetrated Keith's thick skull. Better yet, he should repeat it with more emphasis. " _But_. I hate to admit this, but you are the first guy that I have ever got off on. Literally and figuratively. You do not know how many times this past week I woke up to a boner while dreaming of you and it frustrated the hell out of me. So, I think what I'm trying to say is, I like you."

At first, Keith said nothing. Then, when the moment passed, he still seemed to be either contemplatively confused or genuinely speechless. Lance was going to go with awestruck and emotionally overwhelmed.

"Well?" Lance prodded because of course it would be so like Keith to leave a guy hanging at a crucial moment.

"I don't know whether to be disgusted or flattered," Keith finally said.

Lance preened. "You're welcome."

==

The one thing about living in a giant, fortified castle that floated through space was that it was huge and could house many people at the same time. Aside from meals, chores, and compulsory training every morning on Allura's insistence, everyone could do their own thing, whatever that was, and never see anyone else for the foreseeable future.

Lance typically liked to use his downtime to socialize when he wasn't being drafted by Coran into helping with the hundreds of thousands of menial labor tasks that needed to be done in the castle. Socializing usually meant talking to Hunk because he'd be the only other person to talk to and the easiest one to find. If he wasn't helping Pidge with something tech-y, then he would be in the kitchen.

To Lance's surprise, after a particularly tiresome training exercise Allura had put together in the wee hours of the morning, it wasn't Hunk that he found in the kitchen, but Keith. Lance nearly did a double take. His big, bulky friend was nowhere to be seen. 

"Aren't you normally doing your zen thing at the training deck?" Lance helped himself to a hearty glass of water, the only thing that was recognizable out of everything he had sampled of Altean food and drink.

"How do you know that I'm normally doing my 'zen thing' at this time?" Keith shot back. He was clearly having fun with that, if the tiny, upward lifting of the corners of his mouth was anything to judge by. 

Lance may or may not have been, on the occasion, watching Keith in the observation room above the training deck. He had been bored and it was only once, possibly twice. No more than a handful of times.

"I know everything," Lance said. "Including what you had for dinner last night. Spaghetti and meatballs, Altean style." 

Keith rolled his eyes. 

A brilliant idea struck Lance. "Hey, it's our downtime, right?" He nudged Keith lightly and wriggled his eyebrows. "Do you want to…have some _down_ time?" 

"But we're already on downtime," Keith said, frowning. Sometimes, Lance forgot that Keith wasn't very good at comprehending normalcy. He lived by himself in a shack in the middle of a canyon before the whole Voltron thing, which when Lance thought about it, probably hadn't helped Keith's social game whatsoever. 

"I guess I should say _alone_ time," Lance corrected, pitching his voice so it came out sultry. "C'mon, what do you say?" 

Whatever Keith was going to respond with was interrupted when Hunk entered the room, followed shortly by Pidge. The two were embroiled in some nerdy geekery about how to properly maintain their lions, even though Lance had very much told them earlier that the lions were self-cleaning, unlike the super advanced space fortress castle they lived in.

Upon seeing them, Pidge groaned. "I thought you two patched things up! Why are you fighting again?"

"We're not…fighting?" Lance's voice went an octave higher than normal.

Hunk gave Lance a questioning look. "Are you two—"

The alarms screeched to life. 

"We just had training!" Lance despaired. "I'm still sore! And bruised!" 

"The Galra Empire waits for no one," Keith said, making a beeline for the door with everyone else hot on his heels. "Let's go." 

==

Thanks to the skirmish last week, someone from Galra got it into their heads that Voltron couldn't be formed anymore; they were in for a nasty surprise when Voltron scattered their puny space fleet to the distant stars. That wasn't saying it was an easy battle; Lance was still hopped up on the adrenaline rush that came with forming Voltron, but he was certain that he had been knocked around too many times in the cockpit and was sporting some nasty bruising along his ribs. He just couldn't feel it, currently. 

"Great job, Paladins," Allura cheered. "You did fantastic!" 

Over the mind meld, Lance could feel the satisfaction of the other pilots resonating through him. Lance himself was feeling rather pleased about the whole thing, considering that there was minimum damage to the castle and no one was kidnapped. 

He was about to respond to Allura when he felt a mental nudge in his mind; the touch was inexplicably Keith, who emanated curiosity and concern. He could have said something, reassure Keith verbally, but he reached out instead through the mind meld to share in what was probably the most intimate way, that he was okay. He was only bruised, nothing some rest wouldn't heal. 

Relief, followed by a warm, fuzzy sensation broadcasted into Lance's mind. It was eerily similar to how he felt after an extended make-out session with Keith. He wondered if Keith would kiss his bruises better, later that night.

A burst of alarm threaded through the mind meld. 

"What was that?!" It was Hunk. 

"Dude, get out of my head!" Lance yelled, slamming a mental door down on his wayward thoughts. 

"Oh my god," said Pidge, sounding scandalized. 

"You two did what?!" Shiro did not sound pleased.

"Lance!" Keith yelled. "You promised this wouldn't be an issue!"

Lance scowled. It was a hard thing to keep his dick in his pants all the time. Keith should have known that already, but it wasn't like Keith was that much different. He just hid it better than Lance did. 

Pidge screeched something inhuman, a burst of annoyance and genuine shock coming through the mind meld. "Extraneous information that we do not need!" 

"Oh. Well. Dammit."

Needless to say, they separated out of Voltron quickly after that.

==

"That wasn't as bad as it could have been," Lance said. 

After the congratulations and the ribbing, Shiro had called for a team meeting and very explicitly went over their unofficial privacy rules for the mind meld again. No one was allowed to go digging around someone's brain unless express permission was given, etc, etc. Lance knew it all by heart now. 

And then, after that, Hunk had cornered Lance and bawled happily at him. 

"I can't believe it!" Hunk had said in between the loud nose blowing and the gush of tears. "Seriously, I can't believe it." 

"We pilot robotic space lions that can form into a giant space cop. Me and Keith dating can't be the most difficult thing to believe," Lance had shot back with a grin. Then, Keith walked past and Lance followed along, giving Hunk a pair of thumbs up as he went. 

Now, they were freshly showered and sequestered in Lance's room, tangled in a heap on the bed. 

"You really need to get your random thoughts in order," Keith said. "You should join me in some meditation tomorrow. It could help you clear your mind. At the very least, you could spare our teammates embarrassing thoughts next time we form Voltron."

Lance grinned and nuzzled into Keith's hair. "Okay," he said. "No guarantees I can keep all of this under control." 

Keith poked him right where his bruised ribs hurt the most. 

"Brute," Lance gasped, swatting Keith's exceptionally pokey fingers away from his tender spot. 

Keith smiled and pressed a kiss at the corner of Lance's mouth, chaste and sweet. How far he had come, Lance thought, almost deliriously happy, chasing Keith's mouth with his own. They met for a toe-curling kiss and Lance felt the stirrings of something headier, more visceral than lazy lip locking. 

Lance pulled away. "Are you sure?" he asked. "That planet, you know, um."

Keith blinked up at him. "Yeah," he said. "I'm fine. You?" 

"Yeah," Lance replied and leaned forward, pressing a slow, heated kiss against Keith's lips, one that was full of intent. 

"I've been waiting all week for this," Keith said when they parted. He had the dangerous, sly glint in his eyes that brought delighted shivers down Lance's spine as he remembered exactly what happened after Keith gave him this particular look the last time. "How fast do you think I can get you to come?" 

Lance sniggered even when his cock stirred at the challenge. "And everyone think I'm the dirty one." 

Keith didn't respond, but Lance could feel the widening grin pressed against his neck. By the end of the hour, he was sure his ribs weren't going to be the only things bruised.

_ \--End _

**Author's Note:**

> I don't actually know how the mind meldy thing works. Time to rewatch season one. Ahahahahaha.


End file.
